The illegal timber trade fuels climate destruction and organized crime: worth up to $152 billion annually, it drives deforestation from Romania’s primeval forests to Cambodia’s vanishing woodlands. Activists like Gabriel Paun and Marcus Hardtke risk their lives against timber mafias, while murdered rangers highlight the danger. Despite EU warnings, Romania has taken few steps, and German furniture and DIY chains remain major buyers of suspect timber. Environmental crime now ranks as the world’s third largest illicit industry, after drugs and counterfeits.
